The Story of Pengo Parja

Kamal* made his way over ten mountains by foot, crossed a river by boat, and finally hopped a motorcycle through the streets, to get to the recent workshop.

Why? He’s got four generations of believers without Scripture. He was one of the first ever Pengo Parja people to come to faith. Soon, he became a pastor. Now, he has more than 85 believers in his church. There are over 2000 believers who speak Pengo Parja language. But they were lacking Scripture to grow strong and established as families of God. That’s why Kamal makes his way across such rough terrain, and brings his top believers with him, to labor on this translation project to get God’s word into their language.

Up until now, Kamal and other pastors were preaching in Oriya, but the people did not understand the messages fully. On the day of the dedication of the Draft version of Pengo Parja New testament in October 2017, Kamal said, “Earlier it felt like a foreign god was being preached. But when I started preaching in Parja language, people paid more attention. Now they listen more closely to the sermons and participate more in worship. They said, Jesus is no longer a foreign God!” He hopes, soon, his leaders and believers will be able to listen to and share God’s word for themselves!